


Sunrise

by AishiteSubete



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Romance, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 08:39:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17118044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AishiteSubete/pseuds/AishiteSubete
Summary: When the final battle was over, things did not return to the normal Kairi had been expecting. While she struggles dealing with the aftermath of the conflict, she realizes that things are settling into a new normal--and a new normal might not be so bad.





	Sunrise

**Author's Note:**

> Axel/Kairi needs more love.

When the battle was over and they had shaken the dust from their clothes, the guardians of light wondered how things would continue from there.

The new era of peace and light was joyous and certainly well-needed after the clouds of darkness that had been blanketing the cosmos for more than a decade, but it wasn't enough to sweep the cobwebs of sorrow from the corners of their minds. Though the situation had worked out so favorably despite its hardships, having left the battleground with more allies than before, the trauma they went through was still a haunting force. While the people around them laughed and played, enjoying a new universe that was wholly open and connected and radiant, they all struggled with the lingering darkness pain had left on them.

Master Aqua could never sleep in the dark. When night fell over the Destiny Islands and the home and training ground of the new generation of Keyblade bearers was blanketed in stars, there was always a soft, pale glow through the curtains of her window. Through the thin walls and doors of the beach house, one could often hear her talking to Terra (and sometimes to herself) about the horrors she experienced during those thirteen long years in the Realm of Darkness.

Master Terra shared that same fear of the darkness, though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, despite its transparency (perhaps he had admitted it to Aqua at some point). Sometimes in the dead of night, when a tropical storm rolled its way across the islands and left the windows shaking with the clapping thunder, you could hear Terra shout and thrash among his sheets down the hallway. Ventus next door and Aqua across the hall knew when they needed to soothe him and when he needed to work through his horrors himself.

Sleeping became a struggle for Ventus. He often remarked to Sora or Roxas or Vanitas, the three people he was understandably closest to, that he couldn't really bring himself to do it—after all, he had been asleep for thirteen years. He often lamented that he had missed so much in that time frame and regretted his inactivity, seeing it as his own weakness. Everyone tried to reassure him he was at fault for none of it, but it never seemed as though he believed them.

Master Riku struggled in the sense that he became overbearingly protective of everyone close to him—especially Sora, Kairi, and Namine. He was “overbearingly protective” in the sense that he insisted no one go do anything alone, and often attempted to chaperone his three most precious people with anything they did. It got mildly irksome at points, to some, but no one said anything. They all understood.

It took months for Sora—now dubbed Master Sora—to come out of his room for any length of time longer than fifteen minutes. He never rejected anyone who dropped by to see him, though, but his eyes would not glimmer with the mirth they usually held. The final battle had dragged him down just as low, if not lower, than anyone else who fought in that conflict, and no one blamed him for needing a substantial amount of time alone to cope and process the events.

Kairi and Lea were in a much similar state; the final battle had been especially hard on them, harder than either of them had imagined it would be. They were new Keyblade wielders when everything came to a climax, and their opponents were much more formidable than they had anticipated; though Lea had at least some indicator of knowing their strength from prior interactions, Kairi had only the faintest idea of what she was getting into. The two of them spent more time together than anyone had anticipated, talking and working through their traumas and issues.

Nothing had worked out entirely as planned, and Kairi thought about that as she sat on the paopu tree, gazing off into the sunset. She hadn't shared the paopu with Sora that day, even though he had asked; she couldn't and she felt guilty for it. So much had happened since the time she was a young teenager, building a raft at the beach with her two best friends. She had been left out of so much, solely because people wanted to “protect” her—but in the end, she wound up involved and much worse off because of that “protection.” As time passed and she continued to be left behind, even though she had shown she had a Keyblade of her own, that she could fight, it budded into resentment; resentment that only grew under the surface as Axel complimented her skills and she remembered Sora commenting she would “only get in the way” so long ago in Traverse Town. 

They were still best friends, of course, but she couldn't help but notice that he had been spending much more time in the past few months with Riku or Roxas or Ventus, but not necessarily with her. In fact, she found most of her days consisted of a boring, minimal-social-activity lifestyle of sleeping, working, going to school, and training with Master Aqua with every free second she had. It was grueling, yes, but she wanted to take every opportunity she could to become stronger than the girl she was on that final battleground.

“Sitting all alone watching the sun set, Princess?”

Kairi immediately perked up when she heard a familiar voice from behind her. She turned, smiling when she saw Lea standing there, two sticks of sea salt ice cream in his hand; he waved them in front of her almost temptingly, and she chuckled. “The icing on the cake after a long day's work.” He sauntered over to her, taking a seat to her right and handing off the ice cream. “I saw you training today with Master Aqua.”

Kairi looked downcast, embarrassed that he had seen her in the midst of training. “I was pretty off beat today.”

“I don't know, from where I was standing, it really looked like you were pressing her pretty hard,” he grinned. “Don't sell yourself short, you're tougher than you think—trust me, I've taken a hit from you and it wasn't a good time.”

The redhead couldn't help the giggle that bubbled in her throat and she sent him a smile so dazzling he felt like he had no choice but to look away. “Well thank you for stroking my ego,” she said airily, taking a lick from her ice cream and gazing at the waves. Seconds passed, and the two of them watched the sunlight catch and reflect in the water in a peaceful silence that was just as light as the ocean breeze. It was probably because of all the time they had spent together during training, but Kairi felt a sense of comfort around him like she hadn't felt before. “You know Lea, I never expected us to actually become friends like this, not after when we first met.”

Lea wheezed out a laugh, looking over to his right and then back to the petite girl beside him. “Yeah, it all happened what, like fifty yards away?” he smirked. “I gotta say, I thought it was pretty ballsy of you to take off into the Corridors of Darkness like that. You could have gotten seriously hurt by that.”

“Well it just so happened that it couldn't effect me, and I think I subconsciously knew it, or at least I like to say I did,” she said, munching on her ice cream with satisfaction. 

“When we started to train together,” Lea began, wringing his hands in his lap as though he were about to make some sort of deep admission, “I spent most of my time thinking about who you reminded me of. Now I know you reminded me of Xion and all of the memories I shared with her; for a minute after I figured that out, I sincerely doubted we would have any sort of friendship, really. I thought that once the battle ended, it would go back to being me, Roxas, and Xion, and it would go back to being you, Sora, and Riku. I wasn't expecting this.”

“Do you think any of us were?” Kairi shrugged, laying back on the tree so she could stare up at the infinite sky, watching the colors paint over each other in an endless, shifting loop. “I thought I was going to share the paopu fruit with Sora once we got home but then things changed, I changed, and now the only person I ever spend any real time with is you.”

“Things changed alright,” Lea said, almost forlornly. “I had similar thoughts too—man, when I saw Xion, and there became a possibility of everything going back to normal, I thought about telling her what I felt for her. Then the battle ended, and I realized I hadn't really grown those feelings for her.”

“Oh? Then who were they for?”

There was a pause that held itself in the air light a caught breath; Lea looked at Kairi as though he were a deer stuck in headlights, panicking for a response that was anything but the blatant truth. When Kairi raised her eyebrows sharply at him, daring him to make up something dishonest, he sighed and looked at her with almost pleading eyes. “They were for you. You, the girl who forgave me and gave me another chance, even after how I had wronged you; you, the girl who always supported me and did her best to make me stronger; you, the girl who shielded me from danger in a split second's notice; you, who have seen me break down over what we've went through and understood what was devouring me and made it feel better. I grew feelings for you, Kairi, even with the looming shadow of darkness over my head.”

It was Kairi's turn to smile at him, softly and sweetly, and place a hand delicately atop his. “We always have each other, Lea. As we work through these issues together, I think it could lead to one hell of a relationship,” she beamed. “Lea, don't ever change.”

He smiled back at her, in awe of her willingness to give him an opportunity. The warmth from her hand on his spread through his entire body like a ray of pure light. Lea turned his eyes back to the sunset, and for the first time since the battle had ended, he looked forward to sunrise.


End file.
